Korean Refugee Rights Network's Position Statement on the Ministry of Justice's Announcement Extending the ‘Plan to Grant Status of Stay to Guarantee the Right to Education of Long-Term Resident Children’

[No. 25-7 HR#4]

1. The Korea Refugee Rights Network, an alliance of non-governmental organizations that oppose discrimination and hatred against refugees in Korean society and advocate for refugees’ rights, states the following position on the Ministry of Justice’s announcement extending the 「Plan to Grant Status of Stay to Guarantee the Right to Education of Long-Term Resident Children」.

2. The plan, whose extension was finally decided after long efforts and demands by civil society, was the minimum measure to lay the groundwork for two groups of children to enjoy the right to education and build their lives in Korean society: migrant children who live in Korea without status of stay, and refugee children who came to Korea to escape armed conflict and human rights violations but lost their status of stay because of unlawful operation of the system.

3. Although it has the limitations discussed below, the Korea Refugee Rights Network welcomes that the Ministry of Justice, just before the end of the previous measure, revised and supplemented parts of the system and announced a three-year extension; that, unlike before, it announced a plan to grant status of stay together to preschool-age siblings; and that it prepared a way to extend stay after high school graduation, in addition to the option of entering university.

4. However, the following problems remain: first, the policy was not made permanent and was left as a provisional measure with a three-year time limit; second, a blind spot remains among all the youth with a migrant background who were educated and grew up in Korea; and third, no plan has been prepared to extend the stay of the parents of refugee children.

5. Without innovative improvement of the refugee system, refugee children, who likewise should be guaranteed the right to education, are likely to go unprotected within the refugee system and to live in Korea through this general measure. A provisional measure, and a policy whose scope does not cover every category of youth with a migrant background, is no more than a stopgap that casts a question mark over the future of the children who will inevitably appear in the future. Moreover, children expected to enter university, unlike Korean nationals, are in far more cases not in a position to easily support themselves while continuing their studies, and to treat the parents who help them as suspect and immediately send them out of the country is an act that ignores reality.

6. The safety of refugee children is a matter not only for the children themselves but for refugee families, for the residents who live alongside us, for citizens of the Republic of Korea, and for Korean society as a whole. We, who demand a permanent and comprehensive policy to protect refugee children rather than a temporary expedient, are concerned that the current policy, which is not permanent and has some limitations, will produce yet another form of unstable stay.

7. Meanwhile, the small number of refugee children whose stay was regularized through the previous measure, which was in effect for three years, endured great suffering even in applying for status of stay, because of the discriminatory view held by front-line officials that their parents were abusers of the system, and because of inaccurate information and stigma. We strongly urge the Ministry of Justice to implement the newly announced policy better, through proactive disclosure of information, clear training for the front-line officials who receive applications, and prompt decisions between application and approval, unlike before, so that people can apply without experiencing fear, anxiety and difficulty during its implementation. In addition, so that migrant children do not suffer again because of the implementation deadline of March 2028 and the uncertainty over whether the measure will be extended, both the government and the National Assembly must make every effort to prepare a regularization policy, such as legislation that makes the system permanent.

■Korea Refugee Rights Network (TFC(The First Contact for Refugee), 공익법센터 어필, 공익변호사와 함께하는 동행, 공익사단법인 정, 공익인권법재단 공감, 공익인권센터 드림(DREAM), 국제난민지원단체 피난처, 글로벌호프, 난민인권센터(NANCEN), 동두천난민공동체, 동두천가톨릭센터, 동작FM, 민주사회를 위한 변호사모임 국제연대위원회, 비영리단체 겨자풀, 사단법인 두루, 성가소비녀회 의정부관구 동두천 베타니아, 성가소비녀회 의정부관구 파주 베타니아, 수원글로벌드림센터, 순천이주민지원센터, 아시아의친구들, 아시아평화를향한이주MAP, 이주여성을위한문화경제공동체 에코팜므, 이주민지원공익센터 감동, 외국인이주노동자인권을위한모임, 의정부 EXODUS, 이주민센터 친구, 천주교제주교구이주사목센터 나오미, 재단법인 동천, 재단법인 화우공익재단, 제주평화인권연구소 왓, 참여연대, 파주EXODUS, 한국이주인권센터)